The present invention relates to an electric toothbrush.
Electric toothbrushes are, of course, known in the art and used in practice. One of the toothbrushes is disclosed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,30.
The toothbrush shown in the above patent includes an elongated body member which serves as a handle when the toothbrush is manually held, and a cylindrical brush connected to an electromotor accommodated in the elongated body and adapted to rotate about the axis of the brush. The toothbrush is provided with a protecting bracket to protect a user's cheek from contacting the toothbrush during its rotation. The toothbrush is provided with a switch which is operated to change the direction of rotation of the brush in response to gravity-induced movement of the handle, depending on the position to which the handle is tilted by a user.
Such known toothbrush, however, has been found rather impractical because a user should always turn or tilt the toothbrush into an exact position in order to ensure a proper direction of rotation of the brush and thus to make it operate properly. (The toothbrush has the following indications: "red" corresponds to a flesh surface and "white" corresponds to a teeth surface). Therefore, it has been found that the toothbrush provided with a reversible switch is not very suitable and has rather complex construction.
Electric toothbrushes disclosed, for example in DO=OS No. 3,011,534; DE-AS No. 1,287,675; DE=GM No. 1,797,828; GB-PS No. 1,406,314; U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,086; DE-OS No. 2,703,401, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,588,936 have been also considered not very practical.